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Prisoner Welfare

Wellbeing of incarcerated population: policies and statistics

(New)Aiming to Reduce Time-In-Cell Reports from Correctional Systems on the Numbers of Prisoners in Restricted Housing, [PDF]The Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School and the Association of State Correctional Administrators, November, 2016“[T]he new 2016 Report found that 67,442 prisoners were held, in the fall of 2015, in prison cells for 22 hours or more for 15 continuous days or more.”

We are not disposable The Toxic Impacts of Prisons and Jails, [PDF]Californians United for a Responsible Budget, October, 2016“Pollution and environmental degradation created by prisons and jails exacerbate public health risks for not only incarcerated people but also for the local communities where detention facilities are sited.”

Responsible Prison Project Reshaping The Texas Prison System for Greater Public Safety, [Website]Aaron Flaherty, David Graham, Michael Smith, William D Jones, and Vondre Cash, October, 2016“It has often been said that those who are closest to a problem are closest to its solution. That is no less true for those who are in prison.”

The Future of Youth Justice A Community-Based Alternative to the Youth Prison Model, [PDF]Patrick McCarthy, Vincent Schiraldi, and Miriam Shark, October, 2016“Closing these failed institutions requires a clear-headed, common-sense, bipartisan policy approach, and a commitment to replace these facilities with effective alternatives that are already available.”

Responsible Prison Project Reshaping The Texas Prison System for Greater Public Safety, [Website]Aaron Flaherty, David Graham, Michael Smith, William D Jones, and Vondre Cash, October, 2016“It has often been said that those who are closest to a problem are closest to its solution. That is no less true for those who are in prison.”

Global burden of HIV, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis in prisoners and detainees, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, July, 2016“The most effective way of controlling these infections in prisoners and the broader community is to reduce the incarceration of people who inject drugs.”

Making Hard Time Harder: Programmatic Accommodations for Inmates with Disabilities Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, AVID Prison Project, July, 2016“This report...aims to highlight the difficulties that inmates with disabilities face as they seek to access programs and services in state prison systems.”

National Survey of Prison Health Care: Selected Findings, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, July, 2016“This report presents selected findings on the provision of health care services in U.S. state prisons.”

Disabled Behind Bars: The Mass Incarceration of People With Disabilities in America's Jails and Prisons, Center for American Progress, July, 2016“This report highlights steps policymakers can take to combat inappropriate and unjust incarceration and criminalization of people with disabilities, as well as steps to ensure appropriate and humane treatment of people with disabilities[.]”

Isolated in Essex: Punishing immigrants through solitary confinement, New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees, American Friends Service Committee, and New York University School of Law Immigrants Rights Clinic, June, 2016“This report completes the picture by presenting an analysis of previously unavailable data regarding the use of disciplinary solitary confinement (“disciplinary segregation”) against immigrant detainees in Essex County Correctional Facility[.]”

Breaking Promises: Violations of the Massachusetts Pregnancy Standards & Anti-Shackling Law, The Prison Birth Project and Prisoners' Legal Services of Massachusetts, May, 2016“Far too often Massachusetts prisons and jails violate the law in both policy and practice, undermining the public will and subjecting pregnant women to illegal, unsafe, and degrading treatment.”

Assessing Inmate Cause of Death: Deaths in Custody Reporting Program and National Death Index, Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2016“The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has collected data annually on inmates who died in state prison and local jail and the circumstances surrounding these deaths since...2000.”

Administrative Segregation in U.S. PrisonsNational Institute of Justice, March, 2016“Across the political spectrum, there is growing concern about the efficacy and utility of administrative segregation practices[.]”

"Do You See How Much I'm Suffering Here?" Abuse against Transgender Women in US Immigration Detention, Human Rights Watch, March, 2016“[T]his report details the abuses that transgender women suffer in immigration detention and the US government’s inadequate efforts to address them.”

Unjust: How the Broken Criminal Justice System Fails LGBT PeopleCenter for American Progress; Movement Advancement Project, February, 2016“This report pulls together documentation by grassroots groups, national studies, and academic research to unearth and examine evidence of ongoing and pervasive discrimination against LGBTQ people throughout the criminal legal system, from entry to exit.”

Report and Recommendations Concerning the Use of Restrictive HousingU.S. Department of Justice, January, 2016“At its worst, and when applied without regard to basic standards of decency, restrictive housing can cause serious, long-lasting harm. It is the responsibility of all governments to ensure that this practice is used only as necessary.”

Locked Up & Shipped Away: Interstate Prisoner Transfers and the Private Prison Industry Winter 2016 Update, [PDF]Grassroots Leadership, January, 2016(Since the 2013 release of Locked Up and Shipped Away, the same four states (Vermont, California, Idaho, and Hawaii) continue to house a portion of their prisoners in private prisons out of state. And, a fifth state, Arkansas has also opted to do so.)

Growing Up Locked DownACLU of Nebraska, January, 2016“Before they are old enough to get a driver’s license, enlist in the armed forces, or vote, some children in Nebraska are held in solitary confinement for days, weeks--and even months.”

You've Got Mail: The promise of cyber communication in prisons and the need for regulation, Prison Policy Initiative, January, 2016(There are many benefits to electronic messaging in correctional facilities, but our analysis finds that the technology is primed to be just another opportunity for for-profit companies to exploit families and subvert regulations of phone calls.)

Zero Tolerance: How States Comply With PREA's Youthful Inmate Standard, Campaign for Youth Justice, December, 2015“Despite evidence based research highlighting the harms of placing youth in adult facilities and the long term costs of incarceration to youth and society, 1200 youth are in state prisons on any given day across the country.”

Coming Out of Concrete Closets: A report on Black & Pink's National LGBTQ Prisoners Survey, Black & Pink, October, 2015“Close to two thirds (58%) of respondents’ first arrest occurred when they were under the age of 18.”

Time-In-Cell: The ASCA-Liman 2014 National Survey of Administrative Segregation in Prison, [PDF]The Liman Program, Yale Law School, August, 2015“If that number is illustrative of the whole, some 80,000 to 100,000 people were, in 2014, in segregation.”

Breaking the Silence: Civil and Human Rights Violations Resulting from Medical Neglect and Abuse of Women of Color in Los Angeles County Jails, [PDF]Dignity and Power Now, August, 2015“This Report by Dignity and Power Now (“DPN”) documents how jail and prison officials violated the rights of seven women of color, and highlights the mental health consequences of the medical neglect and abuse these women suffered.”

Solitary Confinement: Common Misconceptions and Emerging Safe Alternatives, Vera Institute of Justice, May, 2015“While the precise number of people held in segregated housing on any given day is not known with any certainty, estimates run to more than 80,000 in state and federal prisons--which is surely an undercount.”

Callous and Cruel: Use of Force against Inmates with Mental Disabilities in US Jails and Prisons, Human Rights Watch, May, 2015“This 127-page report details incidents in which correctional staff have deluged prisoners with painful chemical sprays, shocked them with powerful electric stun weapons, and strapped them for days in restraining chairs or beds.”

Reproductive Injustice: The State of Reproductive Health Care for Women in New York State Prisons, [PDF]Correctional Association of New York, February, 2015“Overall, however, we found that reproductive health care for women in New York State prisons is woefully substandard, with women routinely facing poor-quality care and assaults on their basic human dignity and reproductive rights.”

A Solitary Failure: The Waste, Cost and Harm of Solitary Confinement, ACLU of Texas, February, 2015“The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) confines 4.4 percent of its prison population in solitary confinement.”

Paying the Price: Failure to Deliver HIV Services in Lousiana Parish Jails, Human Rights Watch, 2015“The state of Louisiana is 'ground zero' for the dual epidemics of HIV and incarceration.”

Still Buried Alive: Arizona Prisoner Testimonies on Isolation in Maximum-Security, [PDF]American Friends Service Committee, December, 2014“The impacts on the men and women held in isolation are deeply damaging and long lasting. Yet Arizona has once again chosen to double down on solitary confinement with these 500 new maximum-security prison beds in the Lewis complex.”

Sexual Victimization In Prisons And Jails Reported By Inmates, 2011-12- Update, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2014“In 2011-12, an estimated 4.0% of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility.”

Federal Bureau of Prisons: Special Housing Unit Review and Assessment, [PDF]CNA, December, 2014“As of November 2013, approximately 5 percent of the entire Bureau’s prisoner population was being housed in one of these restrictive housing populations with the vast majority in the SHU status.”

The Use of Prolonged Solitary Confinement in United States Prisons, Jails, and Detention Centers, [PDF]Center for Constitutional Rights; Legal Services for Prisoners with Children; California Prison Focus, November, 2014“The US currently detains approximately 80,000 prisoners in solitary confinement in its jails, prisons, and detention centers.”

On Life Support: Public Health in the Age of Mass Incarceration, Vera Institute of Justice, November, 2014(Research in epidemiology indicates that had the U.S. incarceration rate remained at its 1973 level, then the infant mortality rate would have been 7.8% lower than it was in 2003, and disparity between black and white infant deaths nearly 15% lower.)

United States' Compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, [PDF]American Civil Liberties Union, October, 2014“The ACLU report also highlights key aspects of the criminal justice system that do not comply with article 16 of the Convention, which requires the prevention of acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Parsons v. Ryan, CV 12-00601: Arizona Class Action Prison Conditions Lawsuit Expert Reports, [PDF]ACLU of Arizona, September, 2014“Every week, on average, a patient who has been neglected or mistreated dies in the Arizona prison system, according to these expert reports.”

Solitary Confinement - Understanding Restrictive Housing Unit Practices Within the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Prisons, Out4Good, July, 2014“First and second line supervisors, mainly GS9 and GS11 lieutenants, have far too much discretion when it comes to placing offenders in the SHU. The general criterion for SHU placement is that an inmate is disrupting the orderly running of the institution.”

The Crisis of Violence in Georgia's Prisons[PDF]Southern Center for Human Rights, July, 2014“Prison officials violate the Constitution if they know that people in prison face a substantial risk of serious harm, but disregard that risk by failing to take reasonable measures to protect prisoners.”

Entombed: Isolation in the US Federal Prison System, [PDF]Amnesty International, July, 2014“This report will detail how conditions in ADX breach international standards for the humane treatment of prisoners.”

The High Costs of Low Risk: The Crisis of America's Aging Prison Population, [PDF]The Osborne Association, July, 2014“...at present, twenty-eight states hold more than 1,000 older prisoners, up from just two states in 1990.”

State Prison Health Care Spending: An Examination of Female Offenders Released from State Prison in the First Year of Public Safety Realignment, [PDF]Pew Charitable Trusts, July, 2014“In fiscal 2011, states spent a total of $7.7 billion on correctional health care—likely about a fifth of overall prison expenditures.”

Cruel Confinement Abuse, Discrimination and Death Within Alabama's Prisons, [PDF]Southern Poverty Law Center, June, 2014“This extraordinary understaffing has led to a multitude of problems. The vast majority are easily predictable: delays, failures to diagnose and treat problems, failure to follow up with patients, errors and decisions to not treat seriously ill prisoners.”

Nation Behind Bars a human rights solution, [PDF]Human Rights Watch, May, 2014“The momentum for sentencing reform is welcome for all who care about the fair use of government's power to determine what conduct to criminalize and what sanctions to impose on those who break the law.”

Deadly Heat in Texas Prisons[PDF]Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, April, 2014“Since 2007, at least fourteen inmates have died from extreme heat in nine different TDCJ prisons. All fourteen inmates had preexisting health circumstances that rendered them more vulnerable to heat-related illnesses...”

A meta-analysis of the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in incarcerated populations, [PDF]Cambridge University, March, 2014“Compared with published general population prevalence, there is a fivefold increase in prevalence of ADHD in youth prison populations (30.1%) and a 10-fold increase in adult prison populations (26.2%).”

Solitary Confinement as Torture[PDF]University of North Carolina School of Law Immigration/Human Rights Clinic, 2014(The conclusion reached is stark and straightforward: solitary confinement is ineffective at decreasing violence within prisons; it is ineffective at preserving public safety; it is ineffective at managing scarce monetary resources.)

Standing with LGBT Prisoners: An Advocate's Guide to Ending Abuse and Combating Imprisonment, [PDF]National Center for Transgender Equality, 2014“According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 16% of transgender adults have been in a prison or jail for any reason.”

Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) Health Care Evaluation[PDF]Court Medical Experts, December, 2013“We find that the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) is not providing adequate medical care, and that there are systemic issues resulting in preventable morbidity and mortality and that present an on-going serious risk of harm to patients.”

Facilitating Access to Health Care Coverage for Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth, [PDF]Models for Change, December, 2013“Youth involved in the juvenile justice system have extensive physical and behavior health needs. The majority have at least one mental health condition and substance abuse is also very common.”

Fishkill Correctional Facility: 2012, [PDF]Correctional Association of New York, December, 2013“Despite these positive aspects, the Visiting Committee was disturbed to observe so many people at Fishkill who were so physically and/or cognitively impaired that there no longer seemed to be any justifiable reason to keep them in prison.”

Inside the Box: The Real Costs of Solitary Confinement in New Mexico's Prisons and Jails, The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty; The ACLU of New Mexico, October, 2013“New Mexico urgently needs to reform the practice of solitary confinement in its prisons and jails.”

A Death Before Dying: Solitary Confinement on Death Row, [PDF]ACLU, July, 2013“93 percent of states lock up their death row prisoners for 22 or more hours per day. Most of these prisoners live under conditions of extreme social isolation and enforced idleness.”

Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2012[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2013“An estimated 9.5% of adjudicated youth in state juvenile facilities and state contract facilities (1,720 youth) reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization in the past 12 months or since admission, if less than 12 months.”

Buried Alive: Solitary Confinement in the US Detention System, [PDF]Physicians for Human Rights, April, 2013“...solitary confinement can cause severe and lasting physiological/psychological harm. Moreover, in many cases, the resulting harm rises to the level of torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, in violation of domestic and international law.”

Dawson State Jail: The Case for Closure, [PDF]Sentencing Project, Grassroots Leadership, March, 2013“In recent years there have been reports of horrible conditions in the Dawson State Jail involving medical care and inadequate staffing levels. According to reports by CBS News DFW, DSJ has experienced seven deaths since 2004.”

Onsite Assessment RE Cross-Gender Supervision in Correctional Facilities [Tutwiler Prison for Women], [PDF]U.S. Department of Justice, November, 2012“The facility culture is not psychologically safe for women offenders. The women and staff report that Tutwiler is a repressive and intimidating environment. Inmates reported being in fear of retaliation from staff if they reject staff's sexual advances.”

The Answer is No: Too Little Compassionate Release in US Federal Prisons, [PDF]Human Rights Watch and Families Against Mandatory Minimums, November, 2012“To satisfy human rights requirements, prisoners should have access to judicial review or review by a similarly independent, objective tribunal that applies basic due process requirements to decisions regarding the lawfulness of their ongoing detention.”

USA: The Edge of Endurance Prison Conditions in California's Security Housing Units, [PDF]Amnesty International, September, 2012“Studies have found that negative effects from prolonged isolation can continue long after release, including sleep disturbances, depression, anxiety, phobias, anger, impaired memory and problems with normal social interaction.”

Unasked Questions, Unintended Consequences Fifteen Findings and Recommendations on Illinois' Prison Healthcare System, [PDF]John Howard Association of Illinois, September, 2012“[I]ncarceration is overused as a primary means to manage drug and non- violent offenders [...]. This comes at great cost to taxpayers and has little positive impact on recidivism or public safety.”

Lake Erie Correctional Institution Full Internal Management Audit[PDF]Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, September, 2012“Employees interviewed could not demonstrate the following: a knowledge of the local fire plan; a knowledge of the rapid release of inmates from cells in locked areas [...] and many simply stated they had no idea what they should do.”

Invisible in Isolation The Use of Segregation and Solitary Confinement in Immigrant Detention, [PDF]Heartland Alliance and Physicians for Human Rights, September, 2012“This report, the first of its kind, aims to examine the use of segregation and solitary confinement in the immigration detention system, share individual experiences, and provide concrete recommendations to eradicate the use of solitary confinement [...].”

HIV In Prisons, 2001-2010[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, September, 2012“The rate of HIV/AIDS among state and federal prison inmates declined from 194 cases per 10,000 inmates in 2001 to 146 per 10,000 at yearend 2010.”

The Affordable Care Act Implications for Public Safety and Corrections Populations, [PDF]Sentencing Project, September, 2012“The expansion of Medicaid means that states can essentially use federal Medicaid funds to increase treatment services that could reduce incarceration and recidivism and, in doing so, potentially lower associated local and state corrections expenditures.”

Boxed In The True Cost of Extreme Isolation in New York's Prisons, [PDF]New York Civil Liberties Union, September, 2012“New York has nearly 5,000 SHU beds located in 39 prisons, including two dedicated extreme isolation prisons which cost about $76 million a year. From 2007-11, New York issued more than 68,100 sentences to extreme isolation for violations of prison rules.”

Performance Audit Report Evaluating the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex, Part I, [PDF]State of Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit, July, 2012“Overall, the environment at KJCC has not been conducive to ensuring the safety and security of juvenile offenders and staff.”

PREA Data Collection Activities, 2012[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2012“An estimated 9.6% of former state prisoners reported one or more incidents of sexual victimization during the most recent period of incarceration in a jail, prison, and post-release community-treatment facility.”

At America's Expense The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly, [PDF]ACLU, June, 2012“Based on statistical analyses of available data, this report estimates that releasing an aging prisoner will save states, on average, $66,294 per year per prisoner, including healthcare, other public benefits, parole, and any housing costs or tax revenue.”

Receipt of A(H1N1)pdm09 Vaccine by Prisons and Jails United States, 2009-10 Influenza Season, [PDF]Center for Desease Control, January, 2012“This report summarizes the results of that survey, which found that 55% of jails did not receive A(H1N1) pdm09 vaccine during the pandemic period, whereas only 14% of federal prisons and 11% of state prisons did not receive the vaccine.”

Old Behind Bars the Aging Prison Population in the United States, [PDF]Human Rights Watch, January, 2012“Between 1995 and 2010, the number of state and federal prisoners age 55 or older nearly quadrupled (increasing 282 percent), while the number of all prisoners grew by less than half (increasing 42 percent). There are now 124,400 prisoners age 55+.”

Medicine and the Epidemic of Incarceration in the United States[PDF]New England Journal of Medicine, June, 2011“[The Affordable Care Act] could redirect many people with serious illness away from the revolving door of the criminal justice system, thereby improving overall public health in the communities to which prisoners return and decreasing [recidivism] costs.”

Prison Crowding: The Long View, with Suggestions, [PDF]Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission, March, 2011“That puts the prison system 31% over its rated capacity, with about 12,500 more inmates than the prisons were built to hold.”

Out and Down: The Effects of Incarceration on Psychiatric Disorders and Disability, [PDF]University of Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University, University of Minnesota, February, 2011“Incarceration has a robust relationship with subsequent mood disorders, related to feeling "down", including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and dysthymia.”

This is a Prison: Glitter is Not Allowed Experiences of Trans and Gender Variant People in Pennsylvania's Prison System, [PDF]Hearts on a Wire Collective, 2011“Accounts of prison conditions... show the intensity of discrimination, abuse, medical neglect, and punitive isolation... on the inside. Incarcerated T/GV individuals report dismissal, intimidation, or retaliation when attempting to file grievances.”

No Better Off An Update on Swanson Center for Youth, [PDF]Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, November, 2010“Lack or programming in the facility and on overreliance on lockdown result in youth's being "warehoused" at Swanson, rather than developing meaningful skills that would allow for successful transitions upon release.”

Independent Correctional Oversight Mechanisms Across the United States: A 50-State Inventory, [PDF]Pace Law Review, September, 2010(Although this report is thick with examples of entities that perform (or have the authority to perform) some kind of oversight function, it should be clear upon closer examination that formal and comprehensive external oversight is truly rare.)

Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-09[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, August, 2010“An estimated 4.4% of prison inmates and 3.1% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility if less than 12 months.”

Mortality in Local Jails 2000-2007[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2010“Suicide was the single leading cause of unnatural deaths in local jails, accounting for 29% of all jail deaths between 2000 and 2007, but the suicide rate declined from 48 to 36 deaths per 100,000 inmates.”

Sexual Victimization Reported by Former State Prisoners, 2008[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, May, 2010“An estimated 9.6% of former state prisoners reported one or more incidents of sexual victimization during the most recent period of incarceration in jail, prison, and post-release community-treatment facility.”

It's about time Aging Prisoners, Increasing Costs, and Geriatric Release, [PDF]Vera Institute of Justice, April, 2010“Given that many state policymakers have expressed an intention to permit the release of elderly inmates who are not a threat to public safety, it is remarkable that geriatric release policies have had little impact.”

Parental Incarceration, Termination of Parental Rights and Adoption: A Case Study of the Intersection Between the Child Welfare and Criminal Justice Systems, [PDF]Justice Policy Journal, 2010“We found that less than a fifth of all parents, and only two percent with a history of incarceration, attended the dependency court hearings in which their children were detained, reunification requirements imposed, or parental rights terminated.”

HIV in Prisons, 2007-08[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2009“Findings include the number of AIDS-related deaths in state and federal prisons, a profile of those inmates who died in state prison, and a comparison of AIDS rates between prison inmates and the general population.”

HIV/AIDS among Inmates of & Releasees from US Correctional Facilities 2006 Declining Share of Epidemic but Persistent Public Health Opportunity, [PDF]PLoS One, November, 2009“. Although the proportional share of HIV/AIDS borne by those passing through CFs has declined since 1997, the total number of HIV infected persons who are in this flow has remained steady at roughly 150,000 individuals.”

America's Problem-Solving Courts The Criminal Costs of Treatment and the Case for Reform, [PDF]National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, September, 2009“Conditioning treatment on an arrest and entry in the criminal justice system sends a perverse message to the person and is an enormous waste of scarce public and court resources.”

National Prison Rape Elimination Report[PDF]National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, June, 2009“Many victims cannot safely and easily report sexual abuse, and those who speak out often do so to no avail. Reporting procedures must be improved to instill confidence and protect individuals from retaliation without relying on isolation.”

HIV in Prisons, 2006[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2008“The overall rate of estimated confirmed AIDS among the prison population (0.46%) was more than 2½ times the rate in the U.S. general population (0.17%).”

Medical Problems of Prisoners[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2008“An estimated 44% of state inmates and 39% of federal inmates reported a current medical problem other than a cold or virus.”

Expert Report by Dr. Noel on Medical Care at Ely State PrisonAmerican Civil Liberties Union, December, 2007“[T]he medical care provided at Ely State Prison amounts to the grossest possible medical malpractice, and the most shocking and callous disregard for human life and human suffering, that I have ever encountered in the medical profession...”

HIV in Prisons, 2005[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, September, 2007“There were 22,480 state and federal inmates who were HIV infected or had confirmed AIDS on Dec. 31, 2005, which was a decrease from 22,936 at the end of 2004... [t]he 2005 decline was the sixth consecutive year the number has fallen.”

Release from Prison A High Risk of Death for Former Inmates, [PDF]New England Journal of Medicine, January, 2007“The mortality rate among former inmates was 3.5 times (95% CI, 3.2 to 3.8) that among state residents of the same age, sex, and race. The attributable-risk percentage was 71%, amounting to 316 excess deaths.”

African Americas, Health Disparities, and HIV/AIDS Recommendations for Confronting the Epidemic in Black America, [PDF]National Minority AIDS Council, December, 2006“The U.S. Department of Justice found that in 2003 the AIDS rate among U.S. prisoners was three times that of the general population.”

HIV in Prisons, 2004[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, November, 2006“The overall rate of confirmed AIDS among the prison population (0.50%) was more than 3 times the rate in the U.S. general population (0.15%).”(Although the percentage of prisoners with HIV has decresed, problems remain.)

Cruel and Degrading: The Use of Dogs for Cell Extractions in U.S. Prisons, Human Rights Watch, October, 2006“The use of dogs to threaten and attack prisoners to facilitate cell extractions has been a well-kept secret, even in the world of corrections.”

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Supermax PrisonsUrban Institute, March, 2006“[This report] suggests grounds for skepticism as well as concerns about the fiscal and human costs of [supermax prisons]. At the same time, it is clear that states and wardens believe supermax prisons can be effective correctional management tools...”

Black Male Incarceration Rates and the Relatively High Rate of AIDS Infection Among African-American Women and Men, [PDF]Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, July, 2005“Our results reveal that the higher incarceration rates among black males over this period explain a substantial share of the racial disparity in AIDS infection between black women and women of other racial and ethnic groups.”

Correctional Health Care: Addressing the Needs of Elderly, Chronically Ill, and Terminally Ill Inmates, [PDF]National Institute of Corrections, 2004“While 50 may seem young to be classified as elderly in the free world, several important factors seem to speed the aging process for those in prison.”

Medical Problems of Inmates, 1997[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, January, 2001“Presents survey data on offenders who were in prison who reported a medical problem since admission or a physical impairment or mental condition”

Prisons and Jails: Hospitals of Last Resort: The Need for Diversion and Discharge Planning for Incarcerated People with Mental Illness in New York, [PDF]Correctional Association of New York and the Urban Justice Center, 1999

HIV in Prisons and Jails, 1995[PDF]Bureau of Justice Statistics, August, 1997“Between 1991 and 1995 about 1 in 3 inmate deaths were attributable to AIDS-related causes.”

Report on the Psychiatric Management of John Salvi in Massachusetts Department of Correction Facilities 1995-1996, [PDF]University of Massachusetts Medical Center Department of Psychiatry, January, 1997“...in our opinion, the number of full-time equivalent psychiatrists within the DOC is far too low to meet the psychiatric needs of the inmate population.”

Prison Suicide: An Overview and Guide to Prevention, [PDF]U.S. Department of Justice, June, 1995“During the past 10 years, the rate of suicide in prisons throughout the country was 20.6 deaths per 100,000 inmates. States with small prison populations appear to have exceedingly high rates of suicide — often more than 2.5 times the national average.”